YSDecaff Quick Tutorials, Vol. I, No.

2, 2016

Creating an Airfoil Mesh

Decaff 42
Abstract
Making a wing for YSFlight can be a challenging prospect for many new modders. Trying to encorporate the
different moving parts like ailerons, flaps, spoilers, etc can be a lot to think about. But the beginning of a wing
starts with the airfoil. Selecting an airfoil shape that will work well for your aircraft can make things a lot easier
down the road when contemplating the moving parts of the wing.
YSDecaff
YSFlight HeadQuarters

Contents
Introduction

Bezier Curve

Forming the Airfoil Shape

2.1
2.2
2.3
2.4

The Upper Curve . . .

The Bottom Curve . .
Leading Edge Editing
Converting to Mesh .

Final comments

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Curve by following Figure 1 from the add menu. It is useful

to note that Bezier curves will be inserted into the model in
the x-y plane. I recommend that you get the shape that you
want in this plane and then rotate it into whatever position you
want it to be in.

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3.1 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Acknowledgments

Introduction
While it is possible to create a fairly accurate model of an aircraft with incomplete references, it requires some understanding of aerodynamics and engineering. While entire books can
and have been written regarding aircraft design and aerodynamics of wings and such, there are some basics that can be
easily summarized in the following table:
Speed
Slow
Sub-Sonic
Super-Sonic

Airfoil
>15%
10-15%
<8%

Wing Area
Large
Medium
Small

Aspect Ratio
High
Medium
Small

Figure 1. Make the animation for the selected object unique

and unlinked from any other animation.

When you look at the Bezier Curve in Edit Mode, it looks
weird. It looks like there are 6 vertices, three on each end,
with some edges connecting each three. These are the control
points for the Bezier curve. The center points on each end
will control where the curve actually starts and ends, but the
other points are used to shape the actual curve.

Airfoils are often classified (as done here) by the ratio

between their length and thickness. The larger the percentage,
the thicker the airfoil. In general it is one of the simplest ways
to determine if the airfoil is designed for slow or high speeds,
and will be one of the main focuses in this guide.

1. Bezier Curve
You can quickly create airfoils using the Bezier Curve in
Blender.1 Before discussing how to form the airfoil, the basics of using the Bezier Curve must be covered. Insert a Bezier
1 There

is a script for newer versions of Blender that can take airfoil

coordinates and make airfoils, but they have too many vertices for YSFlight.

Figure 2. The Bezier Curve in Edit Mode.

Playing with the control points will help you understand

how to achieve the shapes you want. You can read the Blender
Wiki about Bezier Curves for more information, but for this
tutorial we dont need anything more than knowing how to

Creating an Airfoil Mesh 2/3

change the shape of the curve. You dont even need to move
the end points!

2. Forming the Airfoil Shape

It can take some fiddling to get this just right but looking at
example airfoils can provide you with some great ideas as to
what it should look like. See Section ?? for more information
on where to find references.

2.3 Leading Edge Editing

If you take a close look at the leading edge of the airfoil,
you will see that it is rather pointy. A normal airfoil should
have a smooth leading edge curve. Specialized high-speed
airfoils will be more pointy, but for most applications the
airfoil should have a rounded leading edge. In YSFlight, this
also will allow you to have a smooth looking leading edge
with no odd-looking crease running the length of the wing.

2.1 The Upper Curve

The first step taken is to form the upper surface of the airfoil.
Generally you want the highest point of this curve to be about
30-40 percent of the way from the leading edge to the trailing
edge of the airfoil. You may also want to come back to this
step later on once you have the bottom curve in place to finetune the upper curve.

Figure 5. Forming the upper curve of the airfoil.

Figure 3. Forming the upper curve of the airfoil.

2.2 The Bottom Curve

To form the bottom curve there are several things that will
make things easier for learning.
1. The two end points are coincident (in the same spot) as
the upper curve
2. The end points of the airfoil are level.
Enter Object Mode and duplicate the upper curve. Be
careful not to move the duplicated object.2 Edit the duplicated
curve and move the control points near the peak of the curve
to below the horizontal axis, as shown in Figure 4.

This can be accomplished by moving the forward control

points near the curve peaks closer to the leading edge of the
airfoil. Getting it close to the final shape as seen in Figure 5
will make the final touches easier to make.
2.4 Converting to Mesh
Now that the airfoil has been shaped you wish it to be, convert
the curves to a mesh and join them together for form one
final mesh object. If you need to make some adjustments
to the leading edge, now is the time to do it. When you are
ready to finalize the airfoil, select ONLY the leading edge
vertices as seen in Figure 6 and remove the duplicates. This
will remove any chance of a creased leading edge. If you
remove duplicates on the trailing edge, then the sharp angle
will create shading issues that will be more difficult to resolve
later on.

Figure 4. Forming the upper curve of the airfoil.

For the wings airfoil, make sure that the bottom curve
bulges less than the upper curve.3
2 You can keep the duplicate but cancel the move by pressing escape while
the duplicated object is still tracking your mouse movements.
3 If you want a symmetrical airfoil for the aircrafts Vertical and horizontal
tails, then lower curve of the airfoil will need to be the same distance below
the horizontal as the upper curve is above it.

Figure 6. Forming the upper curve of the airfoil.

3. Final comments
Using the method of creating airfoils as shown in this document is certainly not the only way to make these complex

Creating an Airfoil Mesh 3/3

Figure 7. The final airfoil shape ready to be extruded into a wing.

shapes. Rather it is the quick and dirty method I use to get

something that looks good and is fairly close to real life. The
example airfoil that I created for this document is something
generically tailored4 for a subsonic high-speed aircraft. Doing
some basic research can go a long way to making a great
looking model.
Whether you are making a scratch model, or updating an
existing model with new details, a well defined airfoil can give
you enough resolution to create wings with fully animated
components. While the default resolution of a Bezier curve
is 12 vertices, you can customize the detail on the airfoil by
adding more vertices. You also have the option of reshaping
the actual vertex positions after converting the curve to a
mesh.
3.1 References
There are many different airfoils for different types of airplanes. Choosing the right type of airfoil for your airplane
may require some research, however there are many great
references. The Incomplete Guide to Airfoil Usage5 can show
you the different types of airfoils used on common aircraft.
While the actual airfoils may be proprietary information, the
general shape can be estimated from other similar airfoils.
Many airfoils in the Airfoil Coordinate Database6 will have
previews that you can look at to see what they look like.

Acknowledgments
Thanks to all the contributors to the Blender 2.4 Manual.

4 What

an oxymoron!

5 http://m-selig.ae.illinois.edu/ads/aircraft.

html
6 http://m-selig.ae.illinois.edu/ads/coord_
database.html